What is the Family Violence Risk Assessment and Management Survey?
The Family Violence Risk Assessment and Management Survey (the survey) is a valuable tool to measure how well employees and leaders in framework organisations understand MARAM, and their responsibilities to assess and manage family violence risk. It also measures how well organisations are progressing towards MARAM alignment. Family Safety Victoria conducts this survey annually. It was previously known as the MARAM Annual Survey.
What has been achieved so far?
Analysis from this year’s survey found that 77% of organisational leaders/executives felt confident that their workforce was equipped with the tools, resources, and training to meet their obligations under MARAM while 72% of leaders/executives indicated that organisational alignment to MARAM is a High Priority.
Professional and frontline staff demonstrated a strong understanding of their MARAM and Information Sharing responsibilities:
- 94% know how to respond to family violence in their role
- 91% know which services to refer victim survivors or perpetrators of family violence
- 89% felt supported by their organisation in identifying, assessing, and managing family violence risk
- 87% know what MARAM is and how it applies to their work
- 85% know what both the FVISS and the CISS are and how the schemes apply to their work.
Frontline staff also reported on how often they share information to identify, assess, and/or manage family violence risk, and to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. 58% of frontline staff use the FVISS at least once a month, while 60% use the CISS at least once a month.
Whilst some of the survey results indicated good progress towards MARAM alignment and high attendance rates at training sessions, there is still room for improvement in organisational understanding of MARAM responsibilities. This year, only 57% of organisational leaders/executives said they had a detailed understanding of their responsibilities under MARAM- a 17% decrease from last year’s survey results. This reflects the need to refocus attention on organisational leaders as critical enablers of their organisation’s success in achieving legislative requirements and reform objectives.
Consistent with results from previous years, survey respondents pointed to lack of staff time, high staff workloads, and lack of statewide service sector specific guidance to address practice challenges as the biggest barriers to implementing MARAM.
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